Hollowfication
Description Shinigami and Hollow/Arrancar share an trait: they are ostensibly dead. A barrier of spiritual being separates them, but under certain circumstances for Shinigami, this barrier may be breached and a Shinigami may undergo what is known as Hollowfication. Bleach: The Beginning has taken more than a few liberties with its canon regarding the way a Shinigami (or even a Human) may undergo Hollowfication, and as such, this article sticks to Bleach: The Beginning canon rather than mainstream Bleach canon. Types of Hollowfication Half-Breed/"Visored": In this state, a Shinigami's DNA mutates and becomes entwined with Hollow DNA. The resulting mutation effectively makes the Shinigami "half and half" and able to call upon Hollow powers and even access their Hollow form at will with enough training. Ryo and Hajime, two 12th Division scientists under the employ of Takae Kuchiki, perfected a method of transforming a Shinigami to a half-breed even though they initially considered their experiment to be a total failure. Though this type of Hollowfication is mostly stable, emotional or physical distress can cause the usually dormant Hollow characteristic in the half-breed to take over the mind and body of its host. Unlike a Hollow, a half-breed does not experience a hunger for souls and a half-breed also retains a Hollow's immortality. Half-breeds can evolve in the same unpredictable but often beneficial manner of a Hollow which can result in the Shinigami having abilities that Shinigami otherwise cannot gain. The being that does this is called the half-breed's Inner Hollow. '''Through greatly varied means, nearly all of the Vizard are half-breeds. Half breeds are no longer doggedly hunted by Seireitei, but they remain unwelcome in Soul Society and there is no law for killing a half-breed for any reason at any place. ' '''White Hollow Positive': With the outbreak of the White Hollow virus, millions across Soul Society and the Human World were infected with this virus which for humans and Shinigami, would supposedly be 100% fatal. For Shinigami, White Hollow slowly and painfully altered a Shinigami's physiology into that of a Hollow. Symptoms included the formation of a Hollow mask as well as other Hollow-like characteristics except for access to the abilities of a Hollow. The infection would eventually lead to the Shinigami's brain death and full transformation into a Hollow, a fate worse than death for a Shinigami. In humans, White Hollow was nearly indistinguishable from the Ebola virus with the except of a symptomatic foamy-white vomit. The virus was especially deadly for spiritually aware humans, for whom the virus would cause them to become Hollows instantly upon death. In the case of humans Takeo Ki and Ichimitsu, being given Shinigami powers near the moment of their deaths from White Hollow caused their altered genes to merge with Shinigami genes, transforming them into half-breed Hollowfieds. Unstable Hollowfication/Vizard Killer: '''In this state,a Shinigami is subjected to days or even weeks of extremely painful and traumatic procedures that will eventually transform the Shinigami's physiology so that the Shinigami can transform into a mindless hybrid. The main goal of these procedures, which were mastered by the Hollow With Glasses, is to tear away the Shinigami's free will so that they may act as Hollowfied sleeper agents that can be directed at specific target. After the Hollowfication process is completed, the Shinigami is given various drugs, steroids, and Kido treatments that when the Shinigami is transformed, make it two times more powerful than a high-level half-breed.This led to the implementation of a secret Central 46 project called Project Vizard Killer in which initially unstable hollowfieds were directed to exterminate Vizards but later Vizard Killers were used as the first line of defense during the Seireitei Civil War. All Vizard Killers were exterminated by the Gotei 13 and the Vizard. '''Natural Mutation: This type of Hollowfication occurs naturally for a Shinigami, and it is considered to be an unpreventable phenomena. At the same time, it is extremely rare; the Shinigami Jennifer Orro and the Unknown Hollowfied are the only known beings to have experienced it. Perfect Hybrid: Just as rare as Natural Mutation but far more recent in occurrence, a Perfect Hybrid is different from a half-breed in that while a half-breed merges the power of a Hollow and Shinigami, a Perfect Hybrid ''fuses ''the different powers. The Shinigami thusly gains almost immeasurable power, access to all of a Hollows abilities and evolutions to include Ressurecion, and immortality. Through currently unknown means, Takae Kuchiki is the only known individual to have become a Perfect Hybrid. Treatments As Hollowfication expert and Vizard "Family Physician" Jikido stated, there may never be a cure for any form of Hollowfication because of the number of genes that exist in a human or Shinigami's body. When an individual is Hollowfied, the entirety of their genetic code is altered and tampering with this code, especially when the two strains of the DNA have effectively become one, is impossible in practice and theory as well as suicidal to attempt.